Richard's Blog

Taiwan!

Phew!

I have decided not to ignore this blog anymore.

I just came back from a scout camp with my host family.
There were so amazing, nice and kind people, e.g. one women, who studied in the US, worked for Google and now works for ASUS for marketing purposes. And one who even learned german! Everyone was sooo nice and its funny to hear wei guo ren (foreigner) wherever you go. thanks to advertisment with western people, most people here consider german people to be very beautiful. Thank You, MakeUp companies! xD
But these people here are tricky. You think no one is watching you. But in reality, they record your every action. For example: It was lunch time at the camp and I went to eat (duh). I saw rice in ball form, so I said: “Oh, rice balls!” (I never know what I currently eat, nor do I know any of the production steps…This is especially horrible at the point, when you find out the youre eating cow-ass or horseblood which has been processed to jelly. Luckily, I only ate the latter. However, when you ask them about eating dogs, theyre like: EWWWWW! We dont eat dogs, that is disgusting! Yeah.) Continuing were I left off:
Then they started covering the rice balls in Seaweed, thereby rending all the food unedible for me, unless I want to cause a pukeslide.(Yes clever you thats a wortspiel.)
If there is one thing I abhor, its seaweed. Therefore, I didnt eat anything for lunch. 30 seconds after leaving the dinner table dissappointed, Taiwanese people all over the camp site spotted my non-existent lunch, located my hostsister, inquired her as to the status of my eating and sent her to me, to ask why I don’t eat. Well at least I wont feel alone. Plus theyre doing it in a nice way. Not like in my hometown.
Everyday, I can tell storys about how people try to hide that theyre looking at me. My all time favourite is still “Taking a picture of beautiful scenery behind the foreigner”, which usually features interesting things, such as brick walls, leaves, or even the end of underground tunnel (the black thing the train disappears into).
The best thing of that then is to wave at the person taking the photo. They either have a “Please, I want to die, kill me, kill me!”- Look, or you can use it as a conversation starter. Both ways, it literally guarantees hours of fun for the whole family.

Before we (the german exchange group) went to our seperate Locations in Taiwan, we had our Farewellparty.
There, I met Flora, an Artist here in Taipei, and boy, she can DRAW. She also told me about the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G arts exhibiton on the streets in Taipei Downtown which I am going to miss because of the Camp. YAY! (that was irony)

It is quite odd. People here make less use of irony than the average german. A pity in my eyes, since I wouldnt know what to say to Albert/Marcus or … well anyone in Germany. And yet they manage to strike up an conversation. Inspiring.

Have fun,
Richard

PS: Feel free to correct my every mistake I did in the comments. I hereby aknowledge them and my excuse goes as for as: I dont have time!

Zaijian!
Lets just hope I got the pinyin right there.

Replacement iPhone locked to Netherlands?!

I bought my iPhone 3G 2008 in August. But after some time (a month ago) I saw a crack in the white plastic on the bag. So I call the Apple Support number.
On day one, I immediately get served I give them my credit card credentials, my address and everything and the iPhone is sent out. On day two, the iPhone arrives.
Thank God UPS is that fast
However, there was a problem. The new iPhone appears to be broken.
The problem is, that I can’t insert my T-Mobile SIM card and activate the phone, since iTunes tells me “The SIM-Card is incompatible”. So I call Apple. Yet now, I have to wait a whopping 20 minutes :/
Then, a real nice employee talks to me. She accepts my case and only wants to hand me over to another colleague since she cannot enter my credit card credentials.
But this colleague of hers is not available, so I have to wait another 45 minutes. (Thank god she called me back so I didn’t have to pay for the call ).

As it turnes out, my case is different. The iPhone that I got wasn’t broken.
There appears to have been a little confusion. Someone mixed a few numbers and according to Apple’s database, my iPhone was to be locked to the Netherlands (WTF?!?) Anyway, the support worker asks for my IMEI and Serial-number. I ask him whether he could unlock my iPhone completely while he’s in the Activation Server anyway.
Sadly, he declines. Screw him!

However, this raised a thought:
Wouldn’t it be possible to fake set-up an activation server or simulate one and tell the phone to unlock? Or at least lock to the desired Carrier/Country?

I’ll do what I can to record the network communication with Apple during the Activation/Locking process.

Wish me luck!
Richard

I’ve been hit by.. a stick ?

So there seems to be some odd thing in the almighty “BLOGOSPHERE” going on. It’s called sticks.
Someone threw it at me. So much for friends

I took the liberty to translate the stick.

1. Which fragrance  are you currently using? Borsalino.
2. Song of the day? Count those freaks
3. Your favourite movie? The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
4. Highlight of the day? Not being able to speak, thanks to some miraculous bacteria.
5. What do you really want to learn? to play the piano (I was first!)
6. What was the last thing you bought? Black Cat
7. Favourite weather? 30 °C, partial sun.
8. Most important aim right now? getting back my voice you stupid bacteria!
9. What do you think about the person who threw the stick at you? He’s my playground-friend.
10. If someone gave you a complete house for free, where would you like it? London Piccadilly :D
11. What would you change about yourself? I’d like hair that has NO mind of it’s own and somehow never listens to its superior (me).
12. Where would you most like to be for the next few hours? London in the year 12 000.
13. What compliment makes you most happy? I love you.
14. Whom would you like to meet? Albert Einstein.
15. Favourite piece of clothing? white shirt.
16. Favourite job? Billionaire.
17. Favourite bands? Marina and the Diamonds, The broken hearts, Music go music, Lizzy Grant.
18. Most beautiful city in Germany? Munich & Hamburg
19. How do you style your pubic hair? Gosh are you that desperate?
20. Current favourite song? Count Those Freaks, by the Broken Hearts
21. Favourite TV-Series? Dr. Who
22. What do you wear right now? Jeans, white shirt, scarf.
23. Did you gamble? Yes.
24. What did you eat for lunch? Nothing.
25. When do you finish work? Im a freaking  student, I’m unemployed!
26. Catholic or Protestant? About to be Buddhist. Probably.
27. My first CD? I never bought a music CD. Digital Music FTW!
28. Last Film you saw was? Benjamin Button (again)
29. Best concert so far? Mia. (not MIA)
30. What would you do if you would answer this stick? Sit around?
31. Favourite beverage? Smoothies from british Marks & Spencer
32. What would you buy first if you’d win the lottery? A few MacBook (Pro)s
33. What would you like to be? freaking rich. I don’t ever want to worry about money-things
34. Which subject did you hate the most? Dunno…
35. Last book you read? The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossini

Phewwww.

How does one find new music that one likes?

Well, how? Easy. As long as you visit the following sites and/or know some artists that you like already.

1. No brainer. Last.fm

Last.fm is huge and largely known in the UK and Germany (since it is a UK-based site).
How does it work? You can either start a radio based on artists who you like, or you can look up artists that you like and check the “similar Artists” section. This has proven very helpful for me.
Another possibility is to install the Last.fm  client on Windows, Mac and the iPhone (+various other platforms) and let it analyze  what you listen to. Based upon that, you can tune in to the “Recommendations” station and listen to Artists of who Last.m thinks you might like them. It has proven less helpful to me. But the similar Artists thing is invaluable.

2. Popular: Pandora.

Pandora is amazing. You type in an artist who you like, and it plays a radio station that features artists who sound like the one you typed in. You can even see, how the two relate. Pandora will show you a list, which goes like: Similar electronic influences, etc. etc.
If you already know Pandora, you might know thats it is only available if you live in the U.S.
But there is a working workaround.
You gotta get rid of you non-U.S. IP. Instead of using a proxy, which doesn’t see the flash things, you have to use a VPN. A VPN is basically like a proxy, but not quite. It one layer deeper down in the internet machinery.
However, all you have to do is to go to Hotspotshield and download their little app.
Down’t worry, it is virus and everything-free. If you want to have an U.S. IP, just start the app and right click on the tray icon and tell it to connect.
Wait  a few seconds and there you have your fake IP.
I recommend deactivating the app after you’re done listening, since it dramatically slows down your internet.
This works for Hulu as well.

3. Gnoosic

Dive into the world of Gnod and let it help you to find new artists that you may like. You just type in 3 artists that are alike and who you like and it names new artists, who you could check out.
Since it is not making use of any streaming, you can a) use it everywhere b) have to depend on things like iTunes to give you an impression of that artist.

4. iTunes Genius.

Also very simple. just buy music in the iTunes store and/or listen to the music you like in iTunes, and you are able to use iTunes Genius. You need to have a (free) iTunes account. That’s it.  I found loads of artists using iTunes’ Genius.

New Movie Reviews have arrived!

Wondered recently what you could watch?
Yes? Me  too.
No? But I did.

So I watched 2 movies. The first one is “Miss March”, a rather funny movie, without any sort of message. Its about a guy who plans on losing virginity to his girlfriend of 2 and a half years on prom night. But he falls down the stairs and  falls into a coma. Well, missed it, dude! Anyway, after 4 years, he wakes up, because his … sexually driven friend beats him with a baseball bat. he finds his girlfriend again.. but not in the hospital, sitting next to him, but rather in the Playboy magazine. So far so good.
They drive to the Playboy Mansion to find her, and find out that, !NO SPOILING HERE!

See for yourself:

The second movie was “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”
This one is rather.. romantic to some extend, but also odd and involves criminals. Perfect match, huh?
Anyway, its about a guy, who wants to go away from Pittsburgh, but can´t, since he is sort of “not strong enough”.
So he starts working at a book shop, fucks his superior officer (female), starts learning some boring-as-hell job that he doesn’t really want to do and makes friends with another couple. He is going to have a sexual relationship with both of them, but not simultaneously. Quite interesting, despite my epic fail at describing the film.
See the trailer:

Good movie.

But today, the internet really disappointed me. I wasn’t sure about my interpretation of the movie, so I googled other people’s opinions.
and what do I find?
No thing at all like an interpretation of the book it is based upon, not at all. Only gossip about whether the author is gay. WTF????
And BTW, who cares?
Duh. Everyone as it seems.

Anyway, don’t let my moods get in the way of your happiness.

Richard

The crisis. May contain traces of German.

So maybe you recently thought “This whole crisis thing is not that bad”
But in fact, it is :/
Not for me, luckily, but i don´t want to provoke anything.
I recently saw the latest episode of “Quarks & Co” (Sorry, non-German friends )
However, they did an extraordinary job at summing up knowledge.
just watch it!

Boooooks!

I hate Amazon. You buy something and boom it found loads of new book and you want to read them all!
Downturn: It is EXPENSIVE.

But what if you don´t know what you want to read?
Well, I got help for ya.

1. Eat. Pray. Love.

Surely one of the best book I´ve ever read. Its about the author (Elizabeth Gilbert), who is divorced and finds no joy or anything worth living in her life anymore.
In order to keep her sanity with her, she decides to go on a one-year trip to Italy, India and Bali. Italy to experience the worldly  pleasures (Eat.), India to learn to meditate and to learn the spiritual pleasures (Pray.) and last but not least Bali, to enable her to love someone again (Love.). This book might seem odd, but really it´s not. It is well written and funny, amazing and interesting.
A must read for everyone.

2. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

This is an awesome book. As are all the books by Terry Pratchett.
This book is about the Antichrist. He is born in England, but he gets mixed up with another baby. So for years, the evil forces take the wrong baby for the Antichrist, while somewhere else, in  a little village in England, the Antichrist uses his forces to have a nice childhood. It´s always sunny, the people are nice, and even the prices keep the same.
Again, a must read!

3. The Kite Runner & A thousand Splendid Suns

I cannot dare to replicate the story of these two books. Just buy them!

So , if this is not enough, there still is my Amazon wish-list, my list of books that I still want to read.
Feel free to buy me some of the books on the list

Richard

Wolfram Alpha - A next Gen search engine

Wolfram Alpha. Sounds peculiar. But never the less, it´s awesome.

WolfamAlpha

WolframAlpha isn´t searching the web for strings of texts.
Rather, it is compiling information for you. It understands what you ask for.
For example, you can ask sentences like “Compare the GDP of Germany and the UK”
And it shows you it´s own page with graphs and everything you want.

But it doesn´t yet succeed in what is considered to be the internet´s most important task: the search for porn.
WolfromAlpha is absolutely stunning, definitely worth checking out and it is  the first real competitor for Google.
It´s the first time I said that about anything. Be proud, WolframAlpha!

Oh, I almost forgot: a fool proof link!

Richard

Blogparade: Join in and win 25 € in Amazon currency!

Join this advantageous survey and win a stunning 25 € Amazon voucher!
It is quite easy: blog about your mobile phone usage and boom! You take part in a  lottery and you can win the voucher!
More Info is available here.

So currently I have an iPhone 3G and a contract with the German carrier T-Mobile. I talk approx. 1.5 hours per month.
I rarely use Skype and other stuff,because I never use all of my free minutes, but well
Although I usually use a lot of email, as long as the person in question is fast in responding.

Participate!

Richard

Want some Spotify?

In case you haven´t yet heard of Spotify, look at this:

Isn´t this awesome? It´s freaking instantaneous and all the music is free!

BUT it is invite only, so how does one get an invite? Simple, just click on this link and scroll down a bit. You will find a frame that somewhere says “Continue anyway”. Click that. If it shows some odd site whose name isn´t Spotify, click reload until it shows Spotify. Just insert your Account data.

Pro tip: In the ZIP field, use the zip code from Paris : 75008
Some people had problems with a fake zip.

Have fun and look forward to the iPhone App